Tattoo of In memory

Dear ones

This design was requested by Mustafa as an integration of a design he already had, and to remember some dear people he lost and his homeland which he had to leave as a child on account of war.

The turtle represents family (the main element of the design, the most important one) and it has a crescent and star on the shell to remember his grandparents; we filled the space between moon and star in a way that recalls the sun because it´s a symbol of eternity and positivity and because this way it completes a sun-moon (the union of sun and moon represents impossible becoming possible, and the union of opposites).

The right flipper of the turtle becomes the central part of a fleur de lis, from the flag of his homeland, and a row of waves closes the design on the right.

A second line of mirrored waves composes a stylized traditional hammerhead shark motif on top, and just below it the blank space is shaped to trace a hammerhead shark.

The bird symbolizes watching the world from a different perspective, but also communication to the gods and to the spiritual world, and it represents his nephew.